The Worst Of Us, The Best Of Us

November 30, 1989

One of the mysteries of the human condition is that it harbors in the same species the capacity to be unspeakably vile and unselfishly valiant. Its salvation is that the good is there to redeem the evil.

You could read about both in two stories of the city on Wednesday.

In one, 29 people were indicted on drug charges after a 15-month undercover investigation by Illinois State Police. But this was no commonplace case of drug trafficking. Besides the usual scum-11 suspected drug dealers-the indicted included 16 Chicago public school bus drivers.

Investigators say that in the course of their rounds hauling children to and from grade schools, they were going about their real business: trading in cocaine and heroin. And that they did this even as the children waited on the buses, converting the buses into rolling drug houses in between runs. Their rationale, according to police Lt. George Murray, was that the buses provided ``a good cover.``

Mercifully, the cover was not good enough. It was not by coincidence that the investigation was called Operation SKID (School Kids in Danger). The physical risk to the children, as passengers where drug deals were being transacted, is evident. The psychic risk, in exposing them to this illegal activity in a setting that appeared acceptable, is incalculable. This requires no moralizing; it is the vile in the human equation.

The valiant was exhibited in another story involving a bus, and though it ended sorrowfully, the surge of human spirit it engendered was not diminished. A motorist, later charged with drunken driving, smashed into a minibus on the South Side, sending it somersaulting onto the top of a parked car. Almost instantly, bystanders and nearby residents surged to the scene to help pull the injured from the wreckage. Several-perhaps 10 men-then noticed an 8-year- old girl pinned under the car. With the kind of power sometimes borne of desperate situations, they pushed the bus clear and bodily lifted the car to free the girl.

It was not enough to save her, but in that sudden, spontaneous burst of common effort was the best of the human kind-trying against defiant odds.

There is not much we can do about the vile among us, except try to corner them and punish them; the indictments in the drug case are the beginning of that process. We also can guard against them, and this case is an admonition to the bus companies that hired the drivers to be more careful in screening their applicants or risk the loss of their contracts. It is illegal to hire felons as bus drivers, yet 7 of the 16 indicted had felony convictions, as did 120 of 650 in a spot check.

There also is reason to improve state law, as recommended by State Police Director Jeremy Margolis and Cook County State`s Atty. Cecil Partee, to require drug tests and fingerprint checks of prospective bus drivers. Detecting misfits before they are hired is one sure way to protect our children.

As for the valiant among us and the acts they perform, it is enough to know that they are there. They always will be there, to be called by circumstance to do the best they can, and honor the best in all of us.